These pictures were taken in January 2011, when my girlfriend and I visited the Kralingse Molens, the famous snuff mills of Rotterdam. It was a wet and windy day and not all pictures are as good as they should have been. (I’ll go down there some day soon and bring an SLR with a wide angle lens.) It’s only an hour by train from where we live. We spent a great couple of hours amid thundering cogs and millstones and the tobacco dust. There’s quite a lot of pictures, so I hope the forum won’t blow up in my face when I post them. Enjoy! Upon our arrival, the mills were getting the full blast of wind and rain from the Kralingse Plas (and so were we). 
A look at (some of) the inner workings of the windmill. The giant wooden cogs are used to shift the wind power to the cutting and grinding machinery below. 
These pictures were taken in the floor above the cutting tubs. The vertical rods (that are powered by the cogs) have blades attached to them, that cut up the tobacco in the tubs on the ground floor. 
A look at the cutting tubs… 
…and what’s going on inside them: 
One of the volunteer millers is checking the cut tobacco: 
For an even finer grind, the cut tobacco is pulverized under the mill stones: 
This is where it all happens: snuff miller Jaap Bes mixing and flavouring the finely ground tobacco. Some of the tobacco in the picture may have ended up in your nose! 
A volunteer miller applies the brakes to the windmill. (Actually the job of a miller is not devoid of danger. A popular saying in Dutch is ‘Een klap van de molen hebben’, literally ‘to have been hit by the windmill’. It means being strange, eccentric or just plain crazy. We checked, the millers seemed normal enough.) 
A view over the Kralingse Plas (the weather was awful). 
Some old wooden scales and bales of tobacco: 
Below is some of the actual tobacco that’s being used for snuff making. At the time we visited, the yearly throughput was only some 60 kilograms. I’m not sure what it is now. 
The dry woodwork and the fine tobacco dust probably are a pretty big fire hazard. But then again - who needs a smoke with all that snuff at hand? 
Nice ,I am jealous , Someday I hope to get a chance to fly to the other side of the pond. Most folk won’t understand why visiting the snuff mills was on my agenda. Only my snuffhouse family! Thanks for the tour pictures
Thanks so much for the pictures @Matou!
Very Nice photos! Working hard, Jaap!
Very cool, I’d love to see it myself some day!
Fascinating set of piccies and story, Matou!
nice, makes me wonder how they avoid the mould though!
Thanks, @Matou for the wonderful pictures. That’s it. I’m going to visit the Windmills as soon as I can!
Yeah, mold on that scale could be devastating I s’pose
Beautiful pictures and story! I think some Kralingse will be part of my next purchase!
Thanks for the comments, all. If you ever come over to visit the mills, give me a shout if you like, I might join in. A dream of my own is to visit the old Bernard snuff factory in Regensburg some day, it’s supposed to be beautiful. It’s only a seven hour drive to Regensburg (if I manage to get hold of a car), or a 10 hour train ride, I might go there some time soon. That, and the English snuff mills. To think I’ve been to Kendal and to Sheffield without even knowing they existed (I drove right past Sharrow Mills when I was in Sheffield!) makes me want to pull out my hair. @lunecat : Don’t know where you’re based, but both EasyJet and KLM do cheap flights from Edinburgh to Amsterdam. (KLM is 99 euros, the fare from Newcastle is similar.) From Amsterdam Airport to Rotterdam Central is 50 minutes (max) by train. There’s a high speed train that takes 30 minutes - if it’s not broken. And it’s a 20 minute tram ride plus a 10 minute walk to get to the mills from R’dam Central. To avoid disappointments, check the visiting hours on the website: http://www.snuifmolens.nl/contact/contact\\_en.html
Hahahaha with a walrus tobacco moustache, yeah, count me in.
@ all: Thanks for all the kindness expessed above. Glad to show visitors around and let you sample our products. Jaap Bes.
@lunecat There is (or was) a ferry from Hull directly to Rotterdam. If you can get to Hull, that is.
The ferries still sail daily, early evening for arrival the following morning, so no problems there. There are two of them, The Pride of Hull and the Pride of Rotterdam which pass each other during the night somewhere in the North Sea off the coast of East Anglia. 
Both pics taken on the River Terminal in Hull. I’m on the other side of the city, about 5 miles away, but those ferries are so big they are easy to spot from anywhere on the river front.
Beautiful pictures of a fine snuff making operation!! Hope to visit someday.
Very nice photographs. Your pictures bring back the memories of the smells. What a wonderfully scented place!
@Matou You take excellent pics. Thanks for thinking of us, and sharing them.
Did they allow you to try fresh snuff?
Excellent photo’s. Thanks for sharing them .